You Must BE A Leader BEFORE Others Will Follow

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I want to be a leader’? How many times have you said it yourself? Do you understand that ‘wanting’ is not enough? How many times have you heard or seen someone shout to the rooftops ‘I AM A LEADER!’ Margaret Thatcher said, “"Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to go around telling people you are one, you aren't." Leadership is not a destination. It is a journey. The mistake people make about leadership is that they have to have followers in order to be defined as a leader. That can’t be further from the truth. You must develop yourself as a leader and prepare yourself to receive followers. Leaders have vision All leaders have a vision. They know where they want to go. They ‘see’ their destination, and then make a plan to get there. Will all go swimmingly? Probably not. Leaders don’t worry about that. They look at their intended target, determine the path to get there, and then get to work!

Steps to take to develop vision:

Find a mentor Read books related to your niche and also on leadership Take a few moments each day to ‘daydream’ and write down what you see Create a theme for your business Develop a mission statement for your business One of the most thought-provoking questions someone asked me about leadership was this: If you suddenly had the team you wanted, where would you take them? Essentially she was asking do you have a vision and do you have a plan? At that time, I did not. What made the situation worse is that I did not have a vision AND I DIDN’T KNOW IT!  

Leaders are decision makers and action takers

Story time: One of my neighbors went with me to a home-party. She said to me, ‘I can’t make a decision’. My mouth fell open. It wasn’t like she had to make a life decision. It was whether to buy a bowl or an apple-corer. REALLY??   Leaders don’t hesitate to make decisions, especially the tough ones. Leaders don’t concern themselves with popularity. They are concerned with making the best decision possible with the available information. The best way to develop decision-making skills is to do it. Start off with small, non-critical decisions and then work your way up. If the decision you made turns out to be wrong, determine why it was the wrong decision and learn from it. Once a decision is made, leaders take action! A wrong decision is better than no decision. The wrong action is better than no action. You can learn from mistakes. You can't learn from doing nothing.  

Leaders aren’t afraid to fail

Ok… nobody WANTS to fail; however, the fear of failure does not stop a leader from moving forward. Leaders take calculated risks. They weigh pros and cons of each course of action, and then take the best one possible. The one course of action a leader will not take is the course of inaction. Do leaders always succeed? No. They have more failures than anyone else, BUT they learn from them and move forward.

Leaders have the UTMOST integrity

If you find a leader with integrity issues, you don’t have a leader. It’s just that simple. Leaders don’t cut corners. They don’t slough off when the boss isn’t looking. They take responsibility for their actions. Leaders MUST have integrity in order to develop trust relationships. Leaders face temptations just like everybody else. Nobody is perfect. More often than not, leaders will hold themselves to the highest standard!

Leaders develop other leaders

A good leader seeks to put him/herself out of a job! Leaders don’t want to develop followers. Leaders want to develop other leaders. By doing so, they multiply themselves. If you are following someone who is not helping you grow, ask yourself two questions: Am I displaying the competency to handle more responsibility? Is this person really trying to help me or help himself? While you're on your leadership journey, wanting is not enough. You have to take steps to develop your leadership skills. If this post helped you, please leave a comment and share it with your friends!

Love and Faith,

PS. To access the information I am using to get AMAZING results in my business, CLICK HERE.